In The Stars
by Shadowed Ember
Summary: Rose and the Doctor have to learn how to live again. Post-Doomsday songfic to Elton John's "Written in the Stars." Spoilers for Doomsday and a little beyond.


**Disclaimer: Neither Doctor Who nor "Written in the Stars" belongs to me. "Written in the Stars" is from the musical _Aida_, which is wonderful, by the way.**

**A/N: This was written in a bit of a rush at midnight. It is unbetaed. The POV switches back and forth a bit - I don't think it's too hard to follow, but if it is, drop a line in your review (because you _were _planning to review, right?) and tell me so. The song lyrics are in italics.  
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**It had been days since he'd left her behind.

He hadn't really left her, of course, since he hadn't been able to come through properly, but the thought was the same. He had been there, and then he had left.

_I am here to tell you we can never meet again_

They'd had minutes, no more, and he hadn't gotten to finish. He hadn't gotten to tell her what he'd been longing to since he'd seen her disappear into the other world.

_Simple really, isn't it, a word or two and then  
A lifetime of not knowing where or how or why or when_

She wondered if she'd ever see him again.

He wondered what she was doing.

_You think of me or speak of me and wonder what befell  
That someone you once loved so long ago so well _

He avoids her name.

She avoids everyone, staying in her room for days on end, not listening as her mother and Mickey and even this world's version of her father pounded on her door endlessly.

"Rose Tyler…" And that was it. She might never know for sure. And all he wanted was to make sure she knew.

_Never wonder what I'll feel as living shuffles by  
You don't have to ask me and I need not reply _

She couldn't stop thinking about him.

He couldn't stop comparing Donna with her. Donna was fantastic, but she couldn't quite measure up.

_Every moment of my life from now until I die  
I will think or dream of you and fail to understand  
How a perfect love can be confounded out of hand_

She screamed at the world and cried.

He hid the pain beneath his usual manner. Only when he was alone did his feelings come out.

And they both wondered the same thing – what in the universe had they done to deserve this?

_Is it written in the stars?  
Are we paying for some crime?_

He wasn't as complete without her. He didn't work quite right. She had known what he was thinking almost before he thought it, and he rarely had to explain things to her.

They had been a perfect pair.

_Is that all that we are good for  
Just a stretch of mortal time? _

She didn't know how to live life, day after day, anymore. Linear timelines didn't make as much sense as they used to._  
Or some God's experiment  
In which we have no say  
In which we're given paradise  
But only for a day _

But he had told her the truth – there was no way they could see each other again. And how he hated being powerless.

_Nothing can be altered, there is nothing to decide  
No escape, no change of heart, nor any place to hide _

He had never met anybody quite like her in all nine hundred of his years.

Earth men weren't as interesting as Time Lords.

_You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied  
Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned  
What it is to be in love and have that love returned_

The TARDIS seemed emptier, even with Donna and Martha onboard, than it had for a long time.

_Is it written in the stars? _

Pete's World didn't feel right to her. It wasn't her universe, and it didn't have him.

_Are we paying for some crime?_

Oh, how he missed her.

_Is that all that we are good for  
Just a stretch of mortal time?_

He tried to tell himself that it was better than watching her grow old, but he couldn't quite make himself believe it.

_Or some God's experiment _

She wondered what her life would have been like if she'd never met him, if she'd gone straight home after work that day.

_In which we have no say_

She decided that she would have hated life without him, even if she never knew what she was missing. She decided that the happiness was worth the sorrow.

_In which we're given paradise _

They hadn't had enough _time_. He was a Time Lord, but he'd run out of time. There was a lesson in that somewhere, but he didn't really care.

_But only for a day…_

There wasn't anything they could do but remember each other, and, somehow, faltering, begin to live again.


End file.
